“How to Help a Friend” is a new coloring book designed, written and illustrated by students. Inside, readers will find activities teaching them supportive things they can do and say to help, if a friend discloses an assault.
“Students instinctively knew that we needed something that was safe, to allow us to feel comfortable with the issue,” said Daniel Ash, The Chicago Community Trust's chief marketing officer. “And kids are comfortable with coloring books.”
After conceiving the idea, a group of students applied for funding to produce it though the Acting Up Awards—a microgrant program created by the Trust to supplement the On the Table initiative, by bringing community ideas to life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9j8oV3YuudA
In the students' application video, Jada Miles explained, "We learned in Statistics that most survivors disclose to their teachers at school or other peers, and so we think it's important that teachers and students know how to handle a survivor."
The project was one of 64 that received an Acting Up Award in 2016. With that $1,000, they were able to have their book printed and delivered.
Fox 32 News recently ran a feature story highlighting the project. They report that the students now hope to distribute the coloring books to teachers for use in classrooms beyond their own.
Scheherazade Tillet of A Long Walk Home, a nonprofit that uses art to educate young people about gender-based violence, has worked with the students on their lessons and the resulting project.
“I think this coloring book is a really great step in challenging the culture that we live in to create a culture that is healthy and loving for people,” Tillet said.
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Each year, On the Table brings together excited and passionate community members who share their ideas, hopes and the ways in which they want to make a difference on a local level. And following On the Table, we want to help make those creative and actionable ideas come to fruition.
Launched in 2016, the Acting Up awards provide On the Table participants with small prizes to help them implement their ideas, work together and take action for the public good.
The Acting Up awards are made possible by The Chicago Community Trust in partnership with Goodcity.
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Uniting the Region We Call Home

Join thousands of Chicagoland residents to talk about how we can help unite the place we call home.On the Table connects individuals and communities of diverse perspectives and backgrounds. Talking–and listening–to our neighbors is an important first step toward bridging our divides. And when we come together as a community to learn from and with each other, we have the power to transform neighborhoods, and lives.

What happens now?

On May 16, 2017, nearly 100,000 people engaged with On the Table through social media, at workshops, or at mealtime conversations throughout the region. We know that from those 5,800 mealtime conversations, great ideas were born. Thank you for being part of that movement. We encourage you to take the On the Table survey and make your ideas heard.
In addition, the Acting Up Awards aim to bring those creative and actionable ideas to fruition. On the Table participants were invited to submit the great ideas for community change from their tables, for a chance to win a $1,000 award to put that idea into action. We look forward to sharing those winning projects with you soon. Learn more about Acting Up.

The Impact

On May 10, 2016, more than 55,000 neighbors gathered around 3,500 tables to share a meal. As part of this third annual On the Table, participants from every ZIP code in the region opened up to one another, sharing their ideas for what our communities need to prosper and to thrive.
A text-message survey of participants that evening found that:

The most-discussed topics were equity and inclusion; neighborhood and economic development; increasing collaboration; education; and health, with a mental health focus.

Two-thirds of respondents feel more hopeful about the future after their On the Table conversation.

94% of respondents report that they are likely to take action as a result.

By listening to the voices of our community, we learn what matters most. Education, economic development, sustainable communities and community vitality. We are committed to leading change in these four priority areas, as the keys to unlock opportunity for a better life in a thriving community.

We make grants to organizations working on the front lines to ensure that essential human needs are met—for everyone. And we connect and convene organizations, governments, businesses and funders in collaborative efforts to tackle complex challenges that none of us can address alone.

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[post_content] => It can take the employees at Sweet Beginnings a while to get used to their co-workers. The bees, that is.
But as Johnny Patterson quickly learned, “If you don’t aggravate them, they won’t bother you.”
[pullquote].@NLEN_Jobs achieves 4% recidivism by pairing ex-offenders with unlikely colleagues: bees[/pullquote]
Sweet Beginnings, a for-profit enterprise founded in 2004 by the North Lawndale Employment Network (NLEN), produces top-notch honey and the beelove line of personal-care products made from the sweet stuff. However, the organization’s real mission has to do with men and women like Johnny Patterson, who at the age of 44 has spent many years cycling in and out of prison—and now is looking for a second chance.
“I need to change what I’m doing,” Patterson says fervently.
NLEN hires or employs 20 to 35 people a year, all with “backgrounds,” as founding executive director Brenda Palms Barber calls them—criminal records, a requirement for all the employees of Sweet Beginnings. They also have to be ready, like Patterson, to do the hard work to shed a lifetime of bad habits.
The first stop is U-Turn Permitted, a four-week job-readiness program run by the NLEN. The program addresses such diverse life skills as personal finances, team-building and anger management.
Sweet Beginnings can be the next step. With more than 130 hives in four locations—including O’Hare airport, the Forest Preserve of Cook County and the organization’s West Side backyard— it offers real-world work experience in a business with livestock that needs to be tended, customers, sales goals and marketing materials.
The Chicago Community Trust has supported NLEN for a decade for its work on behalf of the North Lawndale community. Unemployment there is three times the rate of Chicago as a whole, Palms Barber explains—fueled by the outsize incidence of incarceration.
“Even when people want to turn their lives around, and want to do the right thing, they’re not able to get any traction” in an environment marked by a “lack of will” and policies to hire ex-convicts, she says.
That's why Sweet Beginnings aims to “take the sting out of re-entry,” Palms Barber says, by showing employers that its graduates are “good people who have made bad choices.” The organization teaches its workers how to produce, inventory, pack and move its honey and beelove products out to retail stores like Mariano’s, Hudson’s at the airports and Whole Foods. They also learn core values like punctuality and self-respect.
“They get a taste of what making honest money is like,” Palms Barber says. “They love working here, and they hate leaving.”

Fewer than 4% of Sweet Beginnings participants go back into the criminal justice system, compared with the national average of more than 65% and the Illinois average of 55%.

The men and women of the current crop of workers agree. Sweet Beginnings is the second job LaTonya Sykes, 46, has ever held. “I was born into a family of drugs. It was all I saw,” she says—and she spent years in prison as a result.
Now Sykes says she’s determined to make a new beginning, and she likes coming to work at Sweet Beginnings.
“I get a laugh” with co-workers, she says, and adds that it’s “fun” working with the bees. She would like to own her own business one day.
Most of Sweet Beginnings’ graduates are working, Palms Barber says. Fewer than 4% go back into the criminal justice system, compared with the national average of more than 65%, and the Illinois average of 55%.
“I’m a phone call away if they need me,” she says.
Beekeeping was an unconventional enterprise for NLEN, Palms Barber acknowledges. But now she thinks it represents a meaningful convergence for the workers: a chance to commune with nature, and the lessons of loyalty, diligence and resilience that the bees themselves provide.
And while she notes that sales of honey alone won’t sustain a commercial enterprise, “a drop of honey” can go a long way toward enriching hand cream or lip balm to create a prestige natural brand, Palms Barber says.
“Second-chance people can create first-rate products,” she says.
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In order to better serve our nonprofit partners, in 2016 the Trust launched a program of general operating grants—or GO Grants—to organizations committed to addressing chronic needs in our communities. By supporting their general operations or capacity building efforts, GO Grants strengthen their work and enhance the progress of change.

In addition to GO Grants, the Trust continues to award responsive grants, supporting specific programs and projects that serve a community need or seize an opportunity for impact. You can view the complete grants list for 2016 in our philanthropic data report.

[cta_text] => Learn more about the first year of GO Grants
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[post_content] => Julian Champion remembers that when he was around age 7, he had one burning desire—to play a musical instrument. The young boy would accompany his mother, a domestic worker, to one of the homes she cleaned in a well-off area of Trinidad. The children in the household took music lessons.
“I wanted to do that but never could,” Champion recalls. “That was not something my mom could afford to do, send me for lessons, purchase an instrument.”
[pullquote]How Trinidadian accountant became music teacher + mentor for south, west side public schools @WestPointSOM[/pullquote]
The desire to play music stayed with him throughout his childhood years. Finally, at 17 he had the chance to pick up the trumpet when his church offered a little band program. He quickly became the band’s leader.
Champion eventually moved to the United States and became a citizen. He studied theology and earned a masters degree in accounting and finance. But he never relinquished that deep desire he had as a young child, which ultimately led to another: “I wanted to offer music instruction to young, disadvantaged kids, who maybe had the desire but not the resources,” he says.
After more than 15 years of working in ecumenical and social service agencies in North Carolina, Virginia, Minnesota, Indiana and Illinois, Champion founded the West Point School of Music in 2011. The school contracts with Chicago Public Schools to provide music instruction to students on the south and west sides. Champion is West Point’s executive director. Several of his former students are on the staff.

Julian Champion studied theology, then accounting—but never forgot his boyhood in Trinidad, dreaming of music. Champion left his career to create the West Point School of Music, providing music education on Chicago's south and west sides.

West Point, which gets its name from the well-known military academy, is part of The Chicago Community Trust's SMART Growth initiative: a multi-year grant initiative to help small, diverse arts and culture organizations become more sustainable, so that they continue to enrich neighborhoods for the long term.
The school offers two programs: Celebration on Steel, which teaches students to play music using steel drums, a genre with roots in Trinidad; and Urban Music Makers, a concert band program.
“I do not see anything else that can focus the mind the way that learning to play an instrument does,” Champion says.
Champion also formed the Epic Steel Orchestra, an energetic ensemble of young musicians. The orchestra performs Latin, jazz, marches, classical and contemporary music for audiences around the Midwest. All Epic members instruct new students as a part of their service to West Point’s vision.
“I want to get to every young person who lives in a disadvantaged community, who probably wants to play an instrument and not even know it,” Champion says over the sounds of jazz music in a crowded coffee shop.
“If I provide them the access, they may discover it’s something they’re really good at. That instrument, that trumpet, clarinet, saxophone might be their ticket to creating a better life for themselves and their own children.”

West Point provides two programs for Chicago Public School students: a steel drum ensemble and a concert band program. “He is very passionate about what he does,” says one school principal who works with Champion, “and it is making a positive impact upon my students.”

Champion is at heart a philanthropist, seeing needs and finding ways to fill them.
“My heart is broken for disadvantaged communities,” Champion says. “I see thousands of people being left to their own devices. Everybody seems to have given up on trying to make a difference. The biggest casualty is children... I wanted to solve that problem.”
Raquel Davis, principal of Mt. Vernon Elementary School, hired Champion to put together a student orchestra, starting with a two-week music theory class. “I was astonished by the skill and ability of the students” after working with him, she says. “He is very passionate about what he does, and it is making a positive impact upon my students.”

Champion serves as a mentor to his students, many of whom become instructors with the program after graduating. “That instrument, that trumpet, clarinet, saxophone might be their ticket to creating a better life for themselves and their own children.”

Ashanti Gayden, 20, learned to play clarinet at West Point. With Champion’s help, she won a spot at Chicago High School for the Arts. Now she’s a sophomore at the University of Illinois-Chicago studying music performance and the principal clarinetist for the UIC Wind Ensemble. “He always told me to be a leader,” Gayden says. “To go out on your own and make it happen.”
Thoughtful and intensely passionate about all the children he mentors—many see him as a father figure—Champion pulls out his iPad to show photos of current students. With a swipe, fresh, young faces appear on the small screen. He points to one boy. “He’s amazing, a fifth grade trumpet player at Kellman Elementary School,” where Champion teaches weekly. “There he is. He’s so cute. He’s an amazing trumpet player. He’s going to be one who we’ll probably be buying his CD one day. He’s going to be doing this [playing music] the rest of this life.”
Champion pauses to reflect. “Sometimes I say to myself, ‘Here I am.’ For years I struggled by myself to do this. What if I didn’t bother? What if I said, ‘Forget it?’”
He answers his own question. “This thing has captured my mind and my heart and my emotions, and I can’t let it go.”
[post_title] => The Music Mentor Teaching Steel Drums on the South Side
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Making Diverse Small Cultural Organizations Strong and Sustainable

The Chicago Community Trust believes that the strength of our region's cultural vitality is rooted in the diverse landscape of community-based arts and cultural organizations that create affordable and accessible arts opportunities for all residents.
SMART Growth is a four-year capacity-building program that helps Cook County's small arts and cultural organizations engage their board and staff in strengthening management practices that effectively support their mission, enabling them to contribute to the community, pay a living wage to artists and staff and remain resilient in the face of economic and demographic shifts. This signature Trust program includes a customized initial assessment by the Arts & Business Council of Chicago and training in the SMART Growth methodology, followed by 3 years of general operating grants which can range from $15,000 to $50,000 per year.
A total of 70 cultural organizations are alumni of the SMART Growth program, and a further 31 organizations began their participation in 2015.
In 2010, the Trust commissioned an evaluation of the SMART Growth methodology, assessing its impact on organizations as well as providing data to improve the program's design for future cohorts. This was followed up with a 2014 longitudinal study that tracks the first cohort of organizations, five years after their participation.
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The Trust is committed to leading change in four priority areas: education and economic development; housing and human services; civic and cultural vitality; and sustainable development. In order to move the needle on these complex systemic indicators of a thriving community, we use many tools beyond our competitive grant making.

We worked with the City of Chicago, corporate and nonprofit partners to create Our Great Riversthe city’s first-ever plan for its vast network of rivers and tributaries. Then we established the Great Rivers Fund, which invites support from donors with the creativity and determination to help bring this vision to life.

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On the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, the children of West Pullman gathered to stop the violence.
In the parking lot of St. Titus One M.B. Church on South Emerald Avenue, members of the church's Youth Anti-Violence and Mentoring Program stood up in front of friends and family, sharing works of art that they created to speak out against violence in their neighborhood.
[pullquote]At STO church mentor program, art competition encourages #WestPullman youth to fight violence, create a #SafeChicago[/pullquote]
The "Stop The Violence" Artistic Expression Competition welcomed songs, raps, poems, dance routines, drawings or any form of creative expression—and offered a $100 prize for the most powerful statement.
Designed to provide youth in the community with a safe, positive outlet for learning and connecting, the Anti-Violence and Mentoring Program teaches skills that range from anger management and coping with peer pressure, to academic success and job readiness.
This solo performer placed a tape outline representing a fallen body on the ground, then performed a skit imagining the aftermath of a death by gun violence. "But what about picking up your sister from school?" he asked. "Now, who will take her on a bike ride?"
Showing solidarity from the Chicago Police Department's 5th District, Officer Crawford addressed the friends and family who gathered in the late afternoon sun.
In addition to the creative entertainment, the Fun Fest also greeted neighbors with free food, music and a school supply giveaway.
After the performances—and a difficult decision for the judges—Rev. Michael A. Jones, I honored the day's most outstanding artist with a trophy and a $100 award.
As Chicago faced an escalation of violence over the holiday weekend, communities across the city gathered together to create safe spaces like this one—building trust, strengthening bonds, refusing to abandon their neighborhoods to violence, or to ever stop working toward peace.
One young artist shared his vision of a more peaceful world: a crayon drawing of Superman, with the words "It doesn't take a hero to stop violence. It can stop with just one difference. You."
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Rapid Response Grants for Reducing Violence and Promoting Peace

The Chicago Fund for Safe and Peaceful Communities was launched in 2016 to proactively prepare for the potential of a spike in violence in Chicago during summer months, and to support activities that build community cohesion and promote safety and peace.
The Fund was created by the Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities, a coalition of philanthropic organizations that administers its funding. The Fund is not meant to be a quick fix to the complex problem of violence—its targeted grants supplement each funder's intensive and long-standing efforts to develop sustainable, systemic responses to the root causes of the challenge.

In Memoriam

As we reflect on the year, the Trust fondly remembers our friends and allies who have recently passed away.

Philip D. Block“Chicago was so much a part of his soul, who he was. He cared deeply and genuinely for the community in which he lived.” -read more
—Richard Kiphart“Dick had a very unique fire in the belly. He was the ultimate salesman, the ultimate people person.” -read more
—Kale Williams
“Kale didn’t just hold the beliefs of integration and justice and opportunity for all, he embodied those beliefs.” -read more
—
Marcia S. Cohn
—
Lawrence Howe
—
Nancy Johnstone
—
Silas Keehn
—
Juanita Passmore
—
Barry Sullivan
—
Lois Weisberg
—
Dr. Quentin Young

The Chicago Community Trust’s mission to improve the quality of life and prosperity of our region is achieved through the generosity of our donors. As of September 30, 2016, the Trust’s consolidated assets totaled $2.5 billion. In addition, during the fiscal year, the Trust received new gifts totaling $333.2 million and made combined grant commitments totaling $236.5 million.

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[post_content] => It was almost exactly 100 years ago—on December 15th, 1916—that the Trust hosted a luncheon at the Union League Club to introduce The Chicago Community Trust. The luncheon featured Frederick Goff, who founded the world's first community foundation in Cleveland.
I have it on good authority that at least one attendee at that luncheon bemoaned, “I bet the Trust will turn 100 before the Cubs win the World Series.”
I cite this historical example to remind us that the Trust exists within the context of the times: sometimes wildly exuberant, and other times turbulent and troubled.
It was just six months after the 1916 public launch of the Trust that the United States entered World War I.
Why are these facts worth remembering?
The end of World War I brought with it a flood of more than 6 million refugees—and a very public backlash against immigrants.
After the war, Chicago swelled to about 2.5 million people, of whom only 44% were English speaking. This prompted the Trust’s Americanization Survey and the formation of an Americanization Council that would operate until “the furor of prejudice had subsided and we were operating again on a higher level of mutual respect and good citizenship.”
In subsequent years, the Trust tackled issues of prenatal care with Jane Addams and Hull House. It also looked at the deplorable conditions of the Cook County Jail so that “youthful delinquents and first offenders... might be saved from becoming hardened criminals.”
And there was also a Trust study of the care of children with disabilities—back then referred to as “crippled children.”
In each of these are the antecedents of contemporary problems—for which the Trust continues to work with donors and other stakeholders to find innovative solutions to alleviate suffering, protect the most vulnerable and increase opportunity.
What matters more now than ever is that we come together as one Chicago—a city that’s unafraid of addressing the most challenging and complex problems, and respectful of the humanity of each of our neighbors.

Today we face new challenges and uncertainties. And what matters more now than ever is that we come together as one Chicago—a city that’s unafraid of addressing the most challenging and complex problems, and respectful of the humanity of each of our neighbors.

Every year, we invite to you to gather together with us for what we call the Trust’s “state of community” address.
Why do we do this?
Our mission calls us to honestly reflect on the reality of our fellow residents. Are we thriving, or not? Is opportunity abundant and fair, or not?
We cannot pretend that our great city does not face challenges. Our economy was dealt a staggering blow, first by the foreclosure crisis in 2006, followed immediately by the Great Recession. A decade into recovery, we have yet to perform at the level we know Chicago is capable of.
As our colleagues at the Voorhees Center have shared with us, the gap between our most privileged and our most vulnerable residents continues to widen. Some neighborhoods flourish while others are being hollowed out.
Tragically, the ongoing loss of human life has made this year the city’s deadliest in decades; and our community is still struggling with issues of public faith and trust in government.
But Chicago did not earn the title of the Great American City by folding in the face of adversity. This is a city that gains its strength from the challenges it faces and has the track record to prove it.

The 2016 State of Community breakfast brought together donors and nonprofit leaders for a reflection on a year in the life of Chicago—and on the next steps for this community of concern.

What is becoming more and more evident is that residents and community organizations are stepping in and stepping up to take back responsibility for their lives and their communities.
While people are dissatisfied with the state of their community they are also hopeful and feel that they can make a difference.
And that is what we see in Chicago’s neighborhoods: the seeds of hope and determination taking root and sprouting green shoots of education attainment, community re-investment, and new opportunities.
We see a very real and palpable energy and dynamism in our neighborhoods that seems contagious and inspiring.
We see:

David Doig leading a remarkable renaissance in Pullman, resulting in massive re-investment and the re-invigoration of historic properties with the National Park designation.

Theaster Gates leading in the role of artist turned master developer, demonstrating the power of a circular economy that turns liabilities into assets—from reclaiming the Stony Island bank from the wrecking ball, to reclaiming lives from the crisis of mass incarceration.

Joel Hamernick leading Sunshine Gospel Ministries’ Sunshine Enterprises to provide business education and coaching for low-income entrepreneurs throughout Chicago’s south side, creating jobs and economic opportunity for low-income families and neighborhoods. After 4 years, nearly half of their graduates have started businesses.

Doug Low purchasing and repurposing a shuttered school in South Austin. The most violent of Chicago’s neighborhoods has now become a haven for youth served by his Kidz Express with the mission to change neighborhoods one child at a time.

Robbin Carroll launching I Grow Chicago in Englewood and building the Peace House through nothing but sweat equity. For the first time in a long time, children and young adults have a safe place to play and a space to dream.

And Reverend Otis Monroe with the Monroe Foundation securing investments for these communities.

Derek Brown, a former Vice Lord, founding Boxing Out Negativity to keep children out of harm’s way in North Lawndale—and the work of his close friend, Reverend Robin Hood, who has dedicated his ministry to stopping the violence.

Marcenia Richards, founder of Fierce Women of Faith, creating an interfaith coalition of women committed to increasing peace in communities through advocacy, training and partnerships. Her goal next year is to host 77 On the Table conversations with women, one in each Chicago community.

And in Englewood, under the leadership of Rebecca Darr, Women In Need Growing Stronger building Chicago’s first domestic violence safe house in decades.

What do all of their stories have in common? Proximity.
We are successful when we are connected with each other, when we listen and work together. To create more opportunities, we must be proximate to those without opportunity.
To this very point, we see the foundation community leaning in and redoubling our commitment to not just fund solutions, but to be part of the solution.
There is a group of 20 funders working together to help restore trust and legitimacy of law enforcement by ensuring the fair and inclusive implementation of the recommendations from the Police Accountability Task Force. Together we are providing vital funding to 11 community organizations that are hosting conversations this month and next to engage residents, block by block, to shape the policies, culture and practices of policing in our city.
A number of these funders responded at record speed to the community call for resources in anticipation of violence over the Labor Day weekend. Together we supplied $500,000 to 72 organizations for community events reclaiming safe spaces for residents. All in the span of 10 days! But the most meaningful benefit was forging new relationships between community groups and our foundations.

We are successful when we are connected with each other, when we listen and work together. To create more opportunities, we must be proximate to those without opportunity.

For the Trust’s part, this has been a year of transformation, beginning with the announcement of general operating grants—we call them GO Grants—to support the anchor organizations that are delivering essential services to residents and communities.
One year later, we have made 285 general operating grants totaling over $16 million. Through GO Grants we have also organized subject matter cohorts that create shared methods for measuring impact, and work together to advance policy and systems reform.
We are also focused on creating conditions for a sustainable and inclusive economy.
And in many cases we are doing this by partnering with donors to bring innovative solutions to long-standing challenges.
For example, in partnership with the Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust, we launched the Food to Market Challenge, our first-ever prize philanthropy initiative. The challenge: reimagine the supply chain so that more locally sourced food is available at your local grocery store.
We also launched a partnership with the City and the Metropolitan Planning Council to create the Great Rivers Project, which can be thought of as a metaphor for our times. What was once viewed as a liability for our city, our polluted rivers, is being transformed into a major asset that forms the spine of a livable city.
To meet the need for investment capital in our most under-resourced communities, we partnered with the MacArthur and Calvert Foundations to launch Benefit Chicago, our high-impact investing initiative.
Thanks to On the Table, civic engagement has become core to who we are. This year the Trust added a bit of rocket fuel to On the Table—we created the Acting Up Awards to fund great ideas pitched in 2-minute videos.
Some of the 64 award-winning projects included:

Honest, Open, Proud—a group seeking to destigmatize mental health

Students at North Lawndale High School who organized a youth summit

A “couch tour” to engage and serve homeless youth

A coloring book designed by a sixth-grade class to help more effectively counsel abused youth

There is a clear desire from residents to have their voices heard and for their voices to matter.
In a recent New York Times op-ed, the Dalai Lama and co-author Arthur Brooks of the American Enterprise Institute advise:
“Everyone has something valuable to share. We should start each day by consciously asking ourselves, 'What can I do today to appreciate the gifts that others offer me?' ...Each of us has the responsibility to make this a habit. But those in positions of responsibility have a special opportunity to expand inclusion and build societies that truly need everyone.”
What does this mean to the Trust? How do we think about our role and contributions?
We are committed to creating a more inclusive community. At our core, we seek to connect people power with institutional power. Human capital with financial capital. This is not an 'either/or,' but a 'both together.'
Our work begins by inviting those typically not at the table to the table.
Our experience is that those who have been excluded have the deep experience, wisdom, and community-validated leadership to make a difference.
When we listen and learn from each other—
When we imagine and create, together—
We connect people with people, and the power of creativity and new ideas is channeled to where it matters most.
The result: we see each other through new eyes and appreciate our shared humanity.

We are committed to creating a more inclusive community. At our core, we seek to connect people power with institutional power. Human capital with financial capital. Not either/or, but both together.

For all of this optimism and evidence of progress, what still lies ahead is the challenge of racism and our quest to bring about conditions for a just, fair, equitable and inclusive community.
For the third year in a row, we’ve seen racial equity emerge as a top issue of concern during On the Table conversations.
Last year, on this stage, I stated that, as a community, we could no longer kick the can of racism down the road, leaving it to another generation to confront. If we do, we are complicit and acquiesce to the unfairness of inequity based on racial difference.
While clearly this history is not unique to Chicago, we have the opportunity to set our city apart by making a civic commitment to address this legacy head-on.
Next spring, we will sharpen the focus of On the Table by creating space for residents to deepen their exploration of racial equity. And yet, even though this issue is a leading theme every year, the dialogue will not be easy. We have heard from many that deeper conversations about race make them uncomfortable.
Unfortunately, that will not change as long as we shy away from this dialogue.
Yes, we may say the wrong things, yes we will tap emotions born of bitter experience that well up unexpectedly, but necessarily. But we can work our way through this discomfort and discover that by having honest conversations we actually better understand one another, come to value each other as fellow human beings.
This is a risk worth taking. What do we have to lose, compared to what we have to gain?
We recognize that this is just a first step on a longer journey—but it is the most important step to take.
Adapted from Terry Mazany’s remarks at the State of Community event at the Chicago Hilton on November 15, 2016. You can read the complete address here.
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Each year, On the Table brings together excited and passionate community members who share their ideas, hopes and the ways in which they want to make a difference on a local level. And following On the Table, we want to help make those creative and actionable ideas come to fruition.
Launched in 2016, the Acting Up awards provide On the Table participants with small prizes to help them implement their ideas, work together and take action for the public good.
The Acting Up awards are made possible by The Chicago Community Trust in partnership with Goodcity.
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Impact Investing for Chicago's Social Benefit Sector

Benefit Chicago is a powerful collaboration that aims to mobilize $100 million in impact investments for nonprofits and social enterprises working throughout the Chicago region.
Created by The Chicago Community Trust, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and Calvert Impact Capital, Benefit Chicago provides a way for everyone who cares about Chicago to invest for impact and make our home a better place for all.
Benefit Chicago investors purchase Chicago-targeted Community Investment Notes. The pool of combined capital from the purchase of these fixed-income securities will make low-interest loans and other investments to Chicago-serving nonprofits and social enterprises providing education, access to healthy food, quality affordable housing, job training and more.

Rapid Response Grants for Reducing Violence and Promoting Peace

The Chicago Fund for Safe and Peaceful Communities was launched in 2016 to proactively prepare for the potential of a spike in violence in Chicago during summer months, and to support activities that build community cohesion and promote safety and peace.
The Fund was created by the Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities, a coalition of philanthropic organizations that administers its funding. The Fund is not meant to be a quick fix to the complex problem of violence—its targeted grants supplement each funder's intensive and long-standing efforts to develop sustainable, systemic responses to the root causes of the challenge.

Uniting the Region We Call Home

Join thousands of Chicagoland residents to talk about how we can help unite the place we call home.On the Table connects individuals and communities of diverse perspectives and backgrounds. Talking–and listening–to our neighbors is an important first step toward bridging our divides. And when we come together as a community to learn from and with each other, we have the power to transform neighborhoods, and lives.

What happens now?

On May 16, 2017, nearly 100,000 people engaged with On the Table through social media, at workshops, or at mealtime conversations throughout the region. We know that from those 5,800 mealtime conversations, great ideas were born. Thank you for being part of that movement. We encourage you to take the On the Table survey and make your ideas heard.
In addition, the Acting Up Awards aim to bring those creative and actionable ideas to fruition. On the Table participants were invited to submit the great ideas for community change from their tables, for a chance to win a $1,000 award to put that idea into action. We look forward to sharing those winning projects with you soon. Learn more about Acting Up.

The Impact

On May 10, 2016, more than 55,000 neighbors gathered around 3,500 tables to share a meal. As part of this third annual On the Table, participants from every ZIP code in the region opened up to one another, sharing their ideas for what our communities need to prosper and to thrive.
A text-message survey of participants that evening found that:

The most-discussed topics were equity and inclusion; neighborhood and economic development; increasing collaboration; education; and health, with a mental health focus.

Two-thirds of respondents feel more hopeful about the future after their On the Table conversation.

94% of respondents report that they are likely to take action as a result.

“Think about the power of education to open doors to a lifetime of opportunity. The feeling of owning a home, to raise a family in a safe and thriving neighborhood. The value of health care that contributes to a long and active life. The priceless legacy of natural places and open spaces that are accessible to everyone. Together, we are creating a community where everyone is able to enjoy the best life has to offer, and no one is left behind. Thank you for the change you make.”

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Working Together

Annual Report 2016

Dear friends,

In 2016, we welcomed the start of a new century for The Chicago Community Trust.

We build on a foundation one hundred years in the making, leading with a bold plancreated by our Executive Committee, with the vital input of thousands of Chicagoans through our On the Table community conversationsthat offers a new expression of the Trust’s commitment to the communities we serve:

Inspiring philanthropy – Celebrating the spirit of giving by joining together to become the country’s most philanthropic region

Engaging residents – Generating new models of collaboration with one another for the common good

Leading change – Working with others to solve the most pressing issues and responding to the big opportunities within our communities

At the heart of the Trust is our commitment to service: service to those whose generosity benefits current and future generations, and service to those who make good use of those funds to transform lives and neighborhoods.

We hope you enjoy this collection of stories that reflect the generosity of our donors and the ingenuity of our nonprofits that inspired us to chart this bold new course.

We invite you to read and download the complete 2016 Annual Report, or explore the year’s highlights below.

Inspiring Philanthropy

By amplifying the power of collective giving, the Trust encourages everyone to join together and expand the community of generosity. Our goal is to create the country’s most philanthropic region, inspiring more people to give more of their time, skills and resources to enrich the quality of life throughout our region.

The Trust seeks to co-invest with individuals and organizations–leveraging our scale and capacity so that by giving together, the impact of each investment is multiplied. We serve those who dream of a brighter future.

Our community of generosity includes a network of affiliates—from collaboratives among funders joining forces to tackle a single issue, to identity-focused funds and giving circles of donors united by a shared
heritage or common interest.

We are proud to work in partnership with these groups, to learn from their deep and passionate community expertise, and to provide experience and resources that magnify their impact.

In 2016, the Trust created a new opportunity for its donors to make a local difference through impact investing, in tandem with their traditional grant making.

Across Chicago’s nonprofit sector, there’s a significant unmet need for access to financial capital. That’s why Benefit Chicago is providing a conduit for philanthropic capital, unlocking new financial resources to benefit communities and people that need them most.

Engaging Residents

By listening with full attention to the diverse voices within our community, we take a powerful step toward change. The heartbeat of our community pulses with passion and energy, with a collective desire to stand up and make life better for all of us.

The Trust is dedicated to inviting, hosting and sustaining this collective engagement of everyone in the civic life of our region—on their terms, for our common good.

On May 10, 2016, The Chicago Community Trust convened residents across the Chicago area in the third annual On the Table. Throughout the day, an estimated 55,000 people gathered with friends, neighbors, colleagues or strangers for mealtime conversations about ways to make our
neighborhoods stronger, safer and more dynamic.

We know that solutions to the long-standing challenges our region faces will not be “quick fixes.” But bringing diverse perspectives together in conversation can connect individuals at a human level, building foundations for trust, empathy and collective action that can lead to lasting change across communities.

Leading Change

By listening to the voices of our community, we learn what matters most. Education, economic development, sustainable communities and community vitality. We are committed to leading change in these four priority areas, as the keys to unlock opportunity for a better life in a thriving community.

We make grants to organizations working on the front lines to ensure that essential human needs are met—for everyone. And we connect and convene organizations, governments, businesses and funders in collaborative efforts to tackle complex challenges that none of us can address alone.

In order to better serve our nonprofit partners, in 2016 the Trust launched a program of general operating grants—or GO Grants—to organizations committed to addressing chronic needs in our communities. By supporting their general operations or capacity building efforts, GO Grants strengthen their work and enhance the progress of change.

In addition to GO Grants, the Trust continues to award responsive grants, supporting specific programs and projects that serve a community need or seize an opportunity for impact. You can view the complete grants list for 2016 in our philanthropic data report.

The Trust is committed to leading change in four priority areas: education and economic development; housing and human services; civic and cultural vitality; and sustainable development. In order to move the needle on these complex systemic indicators of a thriving community, we use many tools beyond our competitive grant making.

We worked with the City of Chicago, corporate and nonprofit partners to create Our Great Riversthe city’s first-ever plan for its vast network of rivers and tributaries. Then we established the Great Rivers Fund, which invites support from donors with the creativity and determination to help bring this vision to life.

In Memoriam

As we reflect on the year, the Trust fondly remembers our friends and allies who have recently passed away.

Philip D. Block“Chicago was so much a part of his soul, who he was. He cared deeply and genuinely for the community in which he lived.” -read more
—Richard Kiphart“Dick had a very unique fire in the belly. He was the ultimate salesman, the ultimate people person.” -read more
—Kale Williams
“Kale didn’t just hold the beliefs of integration and justice and opportunity for all, he embodied those beliefs.” -read more
—
Marcia S. Cohn
—
Lawrence Howe
—
Nancy Johnstone
—
Silas Keehn
—
Juanita Passmore
—
Barry Sullivan
—
Lois Weisberg
—
Dr. Quentin Young

Financial Highlights

The Chicago Community Trust’s mission to improve the quality of life and prosperity of our region is achieved through the generosity of our donors. As of September 30, 2016, the Trust’s consolidated assets totaled $2.5 billion. In addition, during the fiscal year, the Trust received new gifts totaling $333.2 million and made combined grant commitments totaling $236.5 million.

“Think about the power of education to open doors to a lifetime of opportunity. The feeling of owning a home, to raise a family in a safe and thriving neighborhood. The value of health care that contributes to a long and active life. The priceless legacy of natural places and open spaces that are accessible to everyone. Together, we are creating a community where everyone is able to enjoy the best life has to offer, and no one is left behind. Thank you for the change you make.”